b6 question from my neighbour

[justin31]

Sorry in advance for the long post...........

my neighbour has a B6 and is having problems with the handbrake/auto brake button.i said i would ask on her behalf as she doesnt know much about the fault.

She brought the car(56 plate) about a year ago now from our local VW dealer and paid £10,000 for it.the 6 month warranty ran out 6 months ago and sods law thats when the problem started.

as you may of guessed shes lives next door to me and we live on a slight hill,the car is parked facing downhill towards the bottome of the road which joins onto a main road.One day after work she pulled up outside her house pushed the handbrake button and got out as she had done hundreds of times.she went around to the boot to unload her shopping when the car started rolling forwards,she ran around the front of the car and tried to stop it rolling but couldnt.luckly the wheels were not straight and pointed slightly to the left so fortunatly(or unfortunaly however you want to look at it) instead of the car rolling into the main road it steered into a brick wall of a garage.She was lucky not to get herslef injoured or even worse but as she told me its just instinct to stop it from rolling....her main worry was it rolling into the road and causing an accident as it was about 6pm and the road was very busy.

The damage was a smashed wing,bonnet,front bumper and headlights.She is fully comp on her insurance so claimed and the repairs were done(£2000+ worth) although she was fully comp as you might of guessed her premium has rocketed and in hindsight she should of paid for the repairs out of her own pocket as its going to cost her more in insurance premiums over the next few years.

I kinda knew what had happend that evening as i bumped into her partner and he said that she probably forgot to press the button and just got out of the car but i had my doubts because if she had of forgotten to press the button, the car would of been moving before she even opend the door(due to the hill) and would of realised.

Now this is when it gets interesting.......

i was having a tinker with my passat(B5) and she pulled up and parked next to me and had a chinwag about our cars,her car was booked in for its MOT that day and she had popped home to drop off some bits.i asked her how her car was and she said that its getting worse,i didnt now what she meant at first but then she told me that the handbrake button kept failing,she was having to press it 2 or 3 times to get it to work and then it would just turn itself off again after a few seconds..she also went on to explain how the autobrake function wasnt work properly either,twice while at traffic lights on a hill the brake for no reason at all has turned itself off and has rolled back just stopping inches short of going into somebody who was behind her.she said that its scarey as the braking system has a mind of its own and doesnt trust it at all.

Her son also owns a B6 and brought one because he was impressed with hers when she first brought it,his is a 57 plate and is also suffering with auto/handbrake failure.

as she was on the way to her MOT which was at our local VW dealer i told her to explain what had happened regarding the car rolling off and crashing and the failure of the auto hold handbrake.When she came back after her MOT i was still outside and i asked her what they had said.she said that they denied there was any problem with the car and that it must of been down to human error on her part,she argued that it wasnt her fault and that it keeps happening to her car and also her sons car which is only a year newer than hers(hers is a 56 plate and her sons a 57 plate) i said to her that they were fobbing her off and there IS a problem.i suggested that she should go back down there and demand atleast a fault scan just to be on the safe side as out of alll the things that can go wrong with a car the braking system is the most dangeruos!

Off she went again and this time she went with all guns blazing and went in demanding to see the manager,when he finaly appeared(he was hiding behind the coffee machine apparently lol) she said she wasnt leaving untill the car was looked at properly.needless to say they aggreed to a fault scan as there were customers in the showroom at the time and wernt impressed with her shouting about how poo her car is lol.Apparently they did the scan but nothing came up(she wasnt shown any evidence that it was clear of faults i must add) and was basicly asked to "kindly leave the building" after she told me what they had said i suggested she write to their headoffice and put in a complaint about the fault and also ask for compensation as her insurance is sky high nw due to the claain because of the accident.

On her behalf ive done a bit of searching on the internet and found a few stories of the braking system failing and just wanted to ask you guys if youve ever had any experiances or know of anybody so we can get some evidence together to show VW.

thanks for reading and any replies will be greatly recieved.